Sunday, August 30, 2009

Some News for Mon Aug 31, 2009

QUESTION

Should US Soccer have a Fans Representative on their World Cup Bid committee?

STARTERS

Congrats to the Richmond Kickers who won the USL Second Division Championship on Saturday night!

dN

Freddy Adu has been sent on loan from Benfinca to another Portuguese team Belenenses aka Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses.-Here is Freddy's Twitter: "ok for those who dont know i just completed a 1 year loan move to Belenenses. And im excited to join the team tomorrow for training"-Guess who the next opponent for his new team is? Yes, Benfinca!

TEAM USA

There are only 3 MLS games on the schedule this weekend, so that certainly helps with scheduling! That is a little better.

dN

The team began gathering in Utah on Sunday for next weekends game.

dN

Oguchi Onyewu will NOT play against El Salvador on Saturday due to Yellow Card accumulation. But check out how assinine the Yellow Card rule is: If you receive 2 Yellow Cards at any time during qualifying you will be suspended for 1 game. That's "ANY TIME", meaning he could have gotten one 15 months ago against Barbados, and then a second in Mexico City 2 weeks ago and be forced out now. That rule is beyond idiotic.

Real Salt Lake forward Pablo Campos has been named Player of the Week.-Just 3 weeks ago he was a member of San Jose, and saw only occasional playing time, then he leaves and thrives. This can't help with the confidence in the management at San Jose.

dN

Both New England and Los Angeles are on a red hot streak right now (it would be fun to see them play this coming weekend), with NE going 5-1-1 (16 points) in their last 7 games, and LA 7-1-2 in their last 10 (23 points). Wow.

dN

After winning his first 2 games as head coach of New York Red Bulls, I think we can safely declare Interim head coach Richie Williams as a modern day Einstein.-With that win the team now has 16 points and cannot be proclaimed the leagues Worst Team Ever. That honor still belongs to the 2001 Tampa Bay Mutiny who finished with just 14 points (and that was in the days when the league did not allow ties).

dN

Greg Lalas of Sports Illustrated even uses his column this week on the New York resurrection. But, this rise in quality is a mile to late, and everyone involved with this team should be embarrassed that they let it get so bad.

dN

Brian Lewis of the NY Post with lots of New York team notes following yesterday's surprising win. Maybe the biggest surprise of all is that centerback Andrew Boyens was a big reason they won!

dN

Chivas USA gave a debut to centerback Yamith Cuesta. He just got his work permit this week, aftering being acquired on loan Expreso Rojo of Colombia, where they currently play in Categoria Primera B.

dN

On Monday Dallas sent fullback/centerback Drew Moor to Colorado in exchange for fullback/centerback Ugo Ihemelu.

dN

Speaking of Dallas - midfielder Pablo Richetti who has sported the 80's bad metal band mullet has gone and done the hair equivalent of the Full Monty - the ultra buzz cut!

The Final is this Wednesday. And the game between DC and Seattle has become a grudge match between dueling whining team Presidents.

USL NEWS

Inside Minnesota Soccer and Major League Soccer Talk have promised to give us all the insider dirt on the sale of the league. The claim going around is that the organization who won the bid were insiders that other bidders were not really aware of, and apparently neither were team owners already in the league.

dN

One very important thing to note here is that the league does not own the teams like in MLS. Each club in every division of USL is simply a franchise. So the "ownership" of the league is more about the name, and the management of direction and executive decision making.

Greg Seltzer at Soccer365 talks to Mix Diskerud of Stabaek in Norway who is set to play for the USA at the U20 World Cup later this month.

dN

Vincenzo Bernardo tell us via Twitter that he is no longer a Napoli: "thanks napoli for the wonderful experience. it was an honor to be part of a club like napoli. the fans will remain in my heart forever." He has to find a new home now.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Is DaMarcus Beasley going to get a new home today during the final few hours of the summer transfer window?-Another bad signal for DMB at Rangers is that the team today signed outside midfielder Jerome Rothen on loan from Paris Saint-Germain.

dN

Game Action from last Friday:

GERMANY - 2 BundesligaKenny Cooper - 1860 Munich - went the full 90 but the game ended in a goalless draw at Ahlen.David Yelldell - Koblenz - went the distance but lost 0-2 at home against Energie Cottbus.

NETHERLANDS - Erste DivisieCharles Kazlauskas - Helmond Sport - played the entire game and drew 1-1 at home against Dordrecht 90.

dN

Weekend Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

DENMARK - SuperligaBenny Feilhaber - Aarhus - started and played 70 minutes as they won 0-2 at Norsdsjaelland.Michael Parkhurst - Nordsjaelland - played the whole game but lost 0-2 at home to Aarhus.Jeremiah White - Aarhus - started and played 61 minutes as they won 0-2 at Norsdsjaelland.

ENGLAND - PremiershipJozy Altidore - Hull City - came on as a sub in the 63rd inute of a 1-1 draw at Wolverhampton.Clint Dempsey - Fulham - played the full 90 but they lost 2-0 at Aston Villa.Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - went the distance winning 2-0 over Fulham.Tim Howard - Everton - played all 90 winning 2-1 at home over Wigan.Eddie Johnson - Fulham - made his season debut for the team coming on as a sub in the 76th minute, but they lost 2-0 at Aston Villa.Jonathan Spector - West Ham - went the distance in a scoreless draw on the road at Blackburn.

ENGLAND - League OneJemal Johnson - Milton Keynes - started and played 62 minutes as they won 1-2 at Exeter City.Jon-Paul Pittman - Wycombe - came on as a sub in the 60th minute and scored the game winning goal as they beat Bristol Rovers 2-1 at home.

FRANCE - Ligue 1Carlos Bocanegra - Rennes - played the full 90 as they drew 2-2 at Lens.Charlie Davies - Sochaux - started and played 85 minutes, drawing the penalty that led to the only goal as they won 1-0 at home over Monaco.

GERMANY - BundesligaSteve Cherundolo - Hannover - played the full 90 but lost 0-1 at home to Hoffenheim.

GERMANY - 2 BundesligaKenny Cooper - 1860 Munich - played the entire match but could only draw 0-0 at Rot Weiss Ahlen.Matt Taylor - Frankfurt - came on as a sub in th 88th minute as they lost at Alemania Aachen 3-0.

NORWAY - TippeligaenClarence Goodson - Start - played all 90, got a Yellow Card, and lost 0-1 at home against Brann.Troy Perkins - Valerenga - went the full game and won 2-1 at home over Molde.

NORWAY - AdeccoligaenJoe Lapira - Nybergsund - played all 90 but lost 4-1 at Sarpsborg

SWEDEN - SuperettanRyan Miller - Ljungskile - went the full 90 but lost 2-1 at Vasby United.Etchu Tabe - Ljungskile - played all 90, scored his teams only goal, but lost 2-1 at Vasby United.

PRIMERA DIVISIONEdgar Castillo - UANL - went the full 90, scored the tying goal as they finished 2-2 at Santos Laguna.Michael Orozco - San Luis - played the entirety of a scoreless draw at home with Puebla.Jose Francisco Torres - Pachuca - went the distance as they drew 2-2 at Guadalajara.Marco Vidal - Indios Juarez - played the full 90 but drew 1-1 at home against Atlas.

The 6 Gazillion Dollar Men of Real Madrid beat a pretty weak Deportivo La Coruna 3-2 in their debut. It will be interesting to see if the two new centerbacks RM bought from Valencia & Racing Santander (Raul Albiol & Ezequiel Garay) get the job done, or if Pepe, Metzelder, Ramos etc get there old jobs back. I suppose Arbeloa could play in the middle too if need be.

Juve is in love with Diego. He has lead them to big wins 2 weeks in a row!

dN

How did Rino Gattuso not get a Red Card for hauling down Samuel Eto'o in the box on a break away in the Milan derby? The ref gave him Yellow, and Diego Milito slammed home the penalty. Justice was served minutes later when old slow Gattuso made an ugly tackle from behind that got him a 2nd Yellow and a well earned ejection.

Andriy Shevchenko has finally left Chelsea to return to his first professional club Dynamo Kyiv. It's about time.

BIG EUROPEAN CLUB MATCHES

-Sat Aug 29Manchester United 2-1 Arsenal - Arsenal outplayed the hosts for most of the games, but as one person said to me on Saturday, Manchester United scored the most goals and that's the only thing that counts. Fair enough.Milan 0-4 Inter - I know I questioned Inter last weekend. Not this time around. They looked like they mean business.Bayern Munich 3-0 Wolfsburg - Never count out Bayern. All they needed was a dose of Arjen Robben to blow the defending champs away. Can they keep this up?-Sun Aug 30Roma 1-3 Juventus - Juve declared that they are going to challenge for the title.

UEFA SUPER CUP

The winners of last seasons UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup faced off.

The Associated Press has a story saying FIFA will test players at this tournament with some sort of "bone test" to verify their age. I had no idea such a test exsisted. I can smell the lawsuits from all the way over here. Paging Dr Strangelove, paging Dr Strangelove. Please pick up the pychedelic colored courtesy phone.

3 Comments:

Andrew Guest said...

Brucio-Just a quick note on the "bone test" thing; its mostly just a desperate attempt by FIFA for faux credibility--though kind of an interesting one. The science is way too vague to establish age accurately (the scans have a margin of error of around a whole year--but with FIFA rules players can be born just days after the limit). I wrote some about it on Pitch Invasion if anyone is curious (I'm sorry if this seems like self-promotion; I'm really just interested in the issue...and I've got nothing to sell) http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2009/08/11/football-age-real-age-and-the-meanings-of-age-in-africa/